ISLAMABAD  -  The Supreme Court of Pakistan Tues­day barred the Accountability Courts from announcing a final verdict in corruption cases.

A five-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of Paki­stan Justice Qazi Faez Isa conducted hearing of the federation and an in­dividual’s Intra-Court Appeals (ICA) against the apex court judgment, dat­ed September 15, 2023.

The order said; “The concerned courts (Accountability) may proceed with the trial but will not announce the final judgment.” 

In this regard, the bench issued no­tices to Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and Chair­man National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The notices were also issued to Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) and the Advocates General of all the provinces and Islamabad. The case is adjourned until the detailed judgment is announced by the ma­jority of three-judge bench.

A three-judge bench, headed by ex-CJP Umer Atta Bandial on September 15 by a majority of 2:1 had declared the amendments null and void and ordered the reopening of all corrup­tion cases worth less than Rs500 million that were previously closed against political leaders of various parties and public office holders. The court had directed the NAB to return all cases records to the rele­vant courts within seven days of the date of judgment.

Advocate Saad Hashmi, the asso­ciate of Makhdoom Ali Khan, who represented the federation in Im­ran Khan petition against the NAB amendments, argued that the Su­preme Court (Practice and Proce­dure) Act, 2023 was enacted and Full Court of SC heard the challenges to the Act and sustained it and it has been declared in accordance with the Constitution. He stated that the Act provided mechanism for the for­mation of benches, which may be a procedural matter, but Section 4 of the Act says where the Constitution pro­visions are involved then the bench must comprise of five judges of the Court, adding the Act was given effect on 21st April 2023 and the impugned judgment passed on September 15. He also contended that the petition was filed under Article 184(3) of the con­stitution assailing the amendments in NAO and a three-judge bench an­nounced the judgment on September 15. He said the matter should have been decided not less than five-mem­ber bench. Farooq H Naek informed that he also filed an appeal on behalf of a private person, who was an accused and the impugned judgment adversely affected him without impleading him as a party. As a matter of abundant caution, he also filed the review peti­tion. He, however, did not press the ap­peal and sought impleadment as party and withdrew the appeal.

The Full Court announced its order on Practice and Procedure Act (PPA) on October 11, but the detailed judg­ment of it has not yet been delivered. AGP Mansoor Usman Awan and Fa­rooq H Naek supported the propo­sition of Hashmi that this legal mat­ter (PPA) be decided first. In view of that the bench decided to fix the ap­peal after the announcement of the PPA detailed judgment. Justice Man­soor Ali Shah in his judgment, an­nounced a day ago (October 30), said that the mode of holding the elect­ed representatives accountable for the offences of corruption and cor­rupt practices through criminal pros­ecution has not been provided by the Constitution but by the sub-constitu­tional laws - the PPC, the PCA and the NAB Ordinance. If Parliament can en­act these laws in the exercise of its or­dinary legislative power, it can sure­ly amend them in the exercise of the same legislative power.